KINGFA Young Investigator Award

Awards and Fellowships

Sponsored by Kingfa Scientific and Technology Co., the KINGFA Young Investigator Award recognizes outstanding contributions by young investigators to the science and chemical technology of cellulose and renewable materials. This is an annual award administered by the ACS CELL Division Awards Chair.

The winner of the Award shall receive an invitation to give a presentation in recognition of the recipient at the ACS Annual meeting, $1,500 cash, a plaque, up to $500 in travel expenses and a complimentary Division Awards Banquet ticket.

Eligibility

A Division member (not affiliate), who is in good standing and who is forty years of age or younger by the date of the award submission deadline, shall be eligible for the award.

Solicitation for Nominations

The Awards Chair shall send out solicitation for nominations by March 15 each year. Each nomination requires one nominator and two support letters from non-nominators. Nominators and nominees shall fill out the nomination form and send the completed nomination form and letters of support in one PDF file electronically to the Awards Committee Chair before the nomination deadline. Nominators and nominees shall abide by the guidelines in the Conflicts of Interest and Ethical Standards section of this procedure.

Important Deadlines

Determination of a Winner

Judges in the Judging Panel shall review nomination materials and rank the nominees in order of preference with the number one being the most preferred. Numerical rankings for each nominee shall be totaled and the nominee with the lowest numerical score shall be the winner of the Award. All judges are required to rank all nominees. Scores from judges that did not rank every nominee shall be discarded from calculation of final rankings of all nominees. If two or more nominees are tied for the lowest numerical score, a second ballot shall be taken to determine the winner. The second ballot shall include only the names of the nominees tied for the lowest numerical score and the same numerical ranking method shall be used to determine the winner. If there are nominees tied for the lowest numerical score after the second ballot, the Awards Chair may continue to run additional ballots using the numerical ranking method to determine a winner among candidates still tied for the lowest numerical score, or call face-to-face meetings, webmeetings or conference calls with judges to determine the winner of the Award. The Awards Chair and the judges in the Judging Panel shall abide to the Conflicts of Interest and Ethical Standards guidelines in this procedure.

Deadline	Date
Appointment of new judges	March 1st
Solicitation and announcement	March 1st
Nomination deadline	May 1st
Awards Chair informs Division of the winner	August 1st
Announcement of Award winner	August 15th or the week before the ACS Fall meeting, whichever earliest

Judging Panel

The Division shall establish a Judging Panel to determine the winner of the Award according to the procedures in Determination of Winners. The Judging Panel shall consist of six members, all regular CELL division members:

Three are the most recent KINGFA Award winners
Three are other appointed judges

The Awards Chair shall complete the appointment of judges before March 1, in consultation with Chair-elect.

Terms of Judges

Each KINGFA award winner judge shall serve three years
All appointed judges shall serve three-year term

Appointment of Judges

Each year, the Awards Chair appoints the recent KINGFA Award winner and one new judge
Year+4 KINGFA Award judge and Year+4 appointed judge are replaced by the new KINGFA Award winner and new appointed judge, respectively

Fill-In Judges

If a judge vacates the position before the end of the term, the Awards Chair shall, in consultation with the Division Chair-Elect and the Division Chair, appoint a judge, a member of CELL division, to fill in the position. The replacement judge shall serve the unexpired portion of the term of the judge who has vacated the position.

Past Winners

Year	Awardee	Institution
2026	Erlantz Lizundia	University of the Basque Country
2025	Tian Li	Purdue University
2024	Chaoji Chen	Wuhan University
2023	Yuanyuan Li	KTH
2022	Koon-Yang Lee	Imperial College London
2021	Feng Jiang	University of British Columbia
2020	Gustav Nystrom	EMPA
2019	E. Johan Foster	University of British Columbia
2018	Silvia Vignolini	University of Cambridge
2017	Liangbing Hu	University of Maryland College Park
2016	Emily Cranston	McMaster University

Recent Winner

2026 KINGFA Young Investigator Award goes to…Dr Erlantz Lizundia…

2025 - Tian Li, Purdue University
2024 - Chaoji Chen, Wuhan University
2023 - Yuanyuan Li, KTH
2022 - Koon-Yang Lee, Imperial College London
2021 - Feng Jiang, University of British Columbia
2020 - Gustav Nystrom, EMPA
2019 - E. Johan Foster, University of British Columbia
2018 - Silvia Vignolini, University of Cambridge
2017 - Liangbing Hu, University of Maryland College Park
2016 - Emily Cranston, McMaster University